Insite

At the beginning of Vincent Dance Theatre’s North American Premiere of If We Go On, presented at the Alexander Kasser Theater April 15, 17, and 18th, Vincent Dance Theatre referenced Yvonne Rainer’s “No Manifesto.” Rainer’s “No Manifesto” calls upon negating or stripping things down, just doing in a very minimalist fashion. Yvonne Rainer’s iconic TRIO A is one example of this minimal approach to choreography. 

Rainer utilized everyday movements in her choreography. In the “No Manifesto,” she writes: “NO to spectacle, no to virtuosity no to transformations and magic and make believe.” The dancing in “TRIO A” comes across less like Swan Lake, and more along the lines of a task, as though Rainer could turn at any moment to operate an article of heavy machinery, or change a tire. As a result, Rainer’s choreography suggests that art-making itself could be like any other everyday activity, as opposed to a behavior of the supernatural. 

If We Go On contains this element of the everyday, too. The performer’s dialogue is plain-spoken, leading to odd pauses, complete silence. The actors’ onstage personas seemed very much like everyday people who question things, take things to far, make mistakes, learn to do things together. It was as though everyone from VDT had gotten together to tell us something. In fact, the first impulse of If We Go On seems to spring from the moment in which Charlotte Vincent had perhaps already given up, and decided NOT to go on. Read more »